"I was proud to make partner in what was perceived as a difficult year to do so, but obviously the situation at Howrey changed very rapidly," Katsiris says. "Thankfully I had an opportunity to come to Venable," he says. "I felt it would be a good fit for me. The firm is doing some good things in the financial services arena, which is my [specialty], and it was just something I couldn't pass up."

A client, whom Katsiris declined to name, helped put him in touch with Venable. The cochair of the firm's New York-based commercial litigation department, Edward Boyle, also knew Katsiris from when both lawyers overlapped at Davis Polk & Wardwell. Katsiris was an associate at Davis Polk from 2001 to 2007.

Katsiris joined Howrey three years ago and has no regrets about doing so. "The results we got for clients, and the caliber of lawyers, it really was a top-notch place," he says. Katsiris declined to comment on the circumstances that led to the firm's dissolution, which takes effect March 15.

In addition to Venable's announcement, on Friday, Covington & Burling said the firm will soon be joined by four Howrey partners. John Nields, Jr., the former cochair of Howrey's white-collar defense practice, is joining the firm, along with ex-antitrust cochair Alan Wiseman, and antitrust litigation partners Andrew Lazerow and Jason Raofield. All will be based out of Covington's office in Washington, D.C.

In an interview with The Blog of Legal Times on Friday, Nields described Howrey's dissolution as "a very sad thing," adding, "there's no finer firm in [D.C.] than Covington & Burling." Wiseman told The BLT he was drawn to Covington by the firm's global antitrust practice leaders, Thomas Barnett and Deborah Garza. Barnett rejoined Covington in January 2009 after serving as head of the Justice Department's antitrust division during the Bush administration.

More moves were announced by Arnold & Porter. The firm is picking up a 13-lawyer IP litigation team in Washington and Los Angeles led by partners Matthew Wolf, Edward Han, and Jennifer Sklenar. John Nilsson and Wallace Wu, who had been partners at Howrey, will join A&P in a counsel role, as will former Howrey counsel Marc Cohn.

Wolf, Han, Nilsson, and Cohn will be based in Washington, while Sklenar and Wu will join A&P in L.A. Seven Howrey associates will join the team at the firm, which A&P expects to be in place by March 16.

Partners that remained at Howrey as of March 9, when the partnership voted to dissolve the firm, are required to stay at Howrey until March 15.